they run under the clouds and pray for longer days
by OpheliacAngel
Summary: Before the chaos their hearts were one. Set pre-series at the very beginning.


**Title:** they run under the clouds and pray for longer days

 **Author:** OpheliacAngel

 **Pairing:** Klaus/Elijah

 **Genres:** Romance/Family

 **Rating:** Teen

 **Summary:** Before the chaos their hearts were one.

 **A/N:** Set pre-series at the very beginning.

 **Soundtrack:** Chantal Kreviazuk's 'In This Life'

* * *

 _~We sleep underneath the same big sky at night_

 _I dream the same dream we can fly_

 _You can run from me_

 _You can hide from me_

 _But I am right beside you_

 _In this life~_

* * *

They run under the clouds. Such little beasts in a world far larger than their family makes up. Klaus cares not. He will lay on his back for hours while his mind makes the clouds into distinct shapes. They are big and white and full and pure, but they always disintegrate.

Much later Klaus will make the connection that the clouds are like people. People are pure and then they are corrupted. They are utterly annihilated until there is nothing left.

Klaus runs farther and faster than them all. Someday soon he will have good reason to.

When he runs he never strays too far. His brother is strong and quick but he is no match for Klaus, yet as much as Klaus will tease him for as long as need be he will never stretch it too long or too far. Elijah never shows his sensitivity and fear of abandonment, much like Klaus', but he need not fear. Klaus will play with him enough to torment him, bend him a little but never enough to show the slightest sign of breaking him.

He slows his speed and allows Elijah to catch up but not to catch him. He runs again, free, wild, carefree. Hands wrap around his waist at the exact moment he chooses and they tumble down among the pine needles and the dirt and the sparse leaves.

"Lijah!" He protests when Elijah maneuvers his way on top of Klaus and pins him down, smiling all the while.

"I have you now, little brother. Pray tell me, what will you do?"

Klaus has a few ideas. Instead he stills. His fingers find his brother's face almost blindly, tracing it, memorizing every line and wrinkle he can. Elijah will sometimes bat his hand away but not today. Father was angry with Klaus today and so Elijah gives Klaus this.

He always gives Klaus _exactly_ what he needs.

"I believe I will best you, brother," Klaus responds in kind.

Klaus gets a proper hold on Elijah and flips him over, Elijah groaning as his back comes in contact roughly with the hard earth and pine needles dig into his clothed skin. His feet are under him then by some will that Klaus can only heed and he is running again, chasing the clouds, soaring past the trees. Free of this place. Free of his father's anger and his brothers competing and his mother's overbearing nature.

Only he and Elijah. Under the same sky.

The two of them against the world.

He feels himself stray too far and he circles back, stopping so as to examine the silence. There are no words. Only the sound of the wind whispering through the trees as if afraid to startle this still and perfect world. Only the leaves, abundant in this part of the woods, rustling underneath him when he shifts in place.

Only the absence of Elijah's carefully chosen words.

He should wait until his brother finds him. He should make Elijah suffer with the knowledge of not knowing where Klaus is, should rustle a few of Elijah's meticulously preened feathers a little.

There is nothing much more that Klaus has interest in doing.

A hand covers his mouth and even though he knows it's Elijah's it still startles him.

"Niklaus." This name he now hates. This name that he does not hate so much uttered from Elijah's lips. There is something pure about the way Elijah says it. Klaus is not that child anymore, nor that weak. Elijah uses it not to put him down, he imbues it with a certain strength that Klaus will always find in Elijah.

Klaus loses his footing in his surprise and Elijah catches him and holds him tight and they tumble down into the leaves together. Elijah is breathing hard against his neck, his heartbeat thunderous in Klaus' ears from where his head lays against his older brother's chest. Even if they part ways, Elijah will always be inside him. Tucked in close to his heart.

Elijah is his constant.

His brother's fingers entwine with Klaus' own as Elijah leans back against the nearest tree, holding Klaus to him. They lay there together, under the sky, watching the clouds. Klaus has gotten Elijah hooked on this, they point out the shapes and always argue about what is really up there looking down on them. Elijah never chides him about such delusions.

They will the days away in fantasies, yet only because they are brighter than the reality.

It is not just Klaus who needs this escape but Elijah too. Elijah is all wound up and tense frame, a chaotic mind that will not quiet, the responsibility that the world is on his shoulders and that he must show his will to bend life to his purpose.

Klaus hushes him, both with words and without. He puts a hand to Elijah's forehead and wills the thoughts and the doubts away. He teaches Elijah to get caught up in the chase, to be wild again. He puts a hand on Elijah's chest, directly over his heart, so as to still the anxiety and agitation in him, to let Klaus squirm his way inside.

He loves Lijah with surety of mind and strength of spirit.

Klaus kisses him and Elijah kisses back, mouth wet and needy against Klaus' own. His hand cups the side of Klaus' neck, brushing back his hair, gaining better access to Klaus' gifts. He does not have many, yet he can make his brother smile again.

They pull away at the sound of birds cawing in warning nearby, escaping from the trees. The day has darkened around then. Still, Elijah does not make to move. He lies still for several minutes as if he is as unwilling to return back to the world as Klaus is.

Yet time passes. Elijah presses a kiss to Klaus' temple. "Dinner will be soon, brother. We must return."

Klaus pulls him down for one more kiss and, much to his surprise, Elijah relents.

He trudges along after his brother then, yet only because he knows the sense of being cherished and that inner stillness of mind will continue tomorrow. Until then, he will hold onto Elijah in his dreams, where no one can hope of stealing him away.

 **FIN**


End file.
